Wikipedia Gets State Funding in Germany
From Slashdot we get the report that the government of Germany is paying to train experts to contribute to Wikipedia.
I'm not sure that I like this idea.
What difference does it make if a government pays people to contribute to previously all volunteer site?
What's the difference in both commitment and quality of work between a job that is all volunteer and a job that is paid?
Is it important to volunteer? Why/why not?
Why wouldn't governments that believe in censorship hire armies to censor Wikipedia? Wouldn't this work?
posted by Andrew Pass @ 9:51 AM
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I think it's a good idea.
No doubt private companies are already flooding Wikipedia with contributions authored by their employees. Having government sources balances that.
More to the point, the government has a vital role to play in ensuring that every citizen is afforded the opportunity to obtain an education, and providing free educational resources plays an important role in that.
What is appealing about the use of Wikipedia - rather than some authority-driven university or publisher driven content initiative - is that the government contribution sin't simply dumped on students as a fair accompli, but is rather subject to the review of the population as a whole, as is any Wikipedia contribution.
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